Yay, I'm glad this chapter is finished. I didn't like it much. But hopefully things will get better, I think I might proof read the next chapter and upload it now…But yep! Thanks to Theta McBride again and to my new followers and favourites, I'd rather have a follower than a review, I hope people keep coming back for more :)

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"The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history."
― Oscar Wilde

King and Lionheart
Chapter eight; History

3rd October 3018

We left the marshes about noon. I did a happy dance in celebration, the Hobbits didn't like it very much, I think they're just jealous of my dancing skills though. Or probably scared.

If I ever saw another marsh again then I'd scream, literally. Things had gotten a lot tenser since we'd left them though. Especially after the mysterious lightning during the night. The other three Hobbits didn't really have anything to say other than it was 'mighty strange'. I really liked the way the Hobbits came out with stuff like that; 'mighty strange' 'aint no mistake' Hobbits were so funny.

I'd spent a good chunk of the morning worrying about the lightning, and sulking with Aragorn for being mean, but even the mysterious black riders couldn't dampen my spirits as I felt dry solid ground beneath my feet. The last few days had felt as though we'd been walking in circles.

The day just got better and better for me. After we'd been walking for a good few hours we came across a familiar friend. She walked right past Aragorn to me, nuzzling my face lovingly. Much to his annoyance. It was bad how much I liked it when something annoyed Aragorn.

My beautiful Buttercup, with her brown coat, and long sandy hair.

I was so glad she'd turned up when she did. If she had come a day earlier, she would have seen me cooking that poor deer. I still felt guilt in my stomach at the thought of it. That deer and Buttercup, they were probably sort of like…well what I am to a Hobbit. The same ish. And I ate it. I was disgusting.

After Buttercup had joined our expedition we made good time with all our belongings piled on her back. Her and Bill seemed to get along well, much to Sam's delight as well, so everyone was in a good mood as we walked and talked.

Pippin had been trying to explain to me about Hobbit holes. Aparently, Hobbits, in general lived in holes in the ground, but nice holes…with no worms or dirt. I wondered how they built them and if they were safe. In my mind, all I could picture was Pippin, digging holes with mole people.

"Why do you call her that?" Aragorn asked suddenly at Pippins side, bemused.

"What? Ai raa?" Pippin turned meeting his gaze, annoyed at being interrupted. He'd been trying to explain that a lot of wood, and support was needed underground to support a family sized Hobbit hole. To be honest, I don't really think he knew how Hobbit holes were made…

"Tom Bombadil called her Ai raa during our visit, it has stuck quite well, has it not Freya?" He turned his head to smile back at me. It really had only stuck with Pippin, I think the other Hobbits could see it made me uncomfortable and stuck with just Freya. Strider had finally taken to calling me Freya as well. It had only taken a week of bratty back chat to make it happen.

"Aye, it has." I smiled kicking a stone gently as we walked along.

I found myself questioning once again, if I'd ever fit in anywhere. I definitely couldn't dig myself a hobbit hole, or be a barmaid in Bree, or a wild man like Aragorn…

I wonder if Aragorn even had a choice about roaming like he does, he looked so at home in the wild that I'd never even questioned it really.

I couldn't see him doing anything else, like being a baker with his long greasy hair or a waiter with his dirty clothes and scruffiness…I could see him being like a soldier, or maybe a blacksmith. Those were the sorts of jobs people did here

"Do you have a family, Aragorn? I mean…what do you do, ya know when you aren't off rescuing Hobbits and damsels in distress?" I smiled crookedly at him, which surprised him.

He didn't rely for a while, I thought he'd just ignored me again, like he does.

"My heart is in Rivendell, but I travel often. With other rangers, we protect people from the evil in the world. I do not have any family, my father died when I was very young and my mother passed a few years ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry Aragorn."

He smiled, a rare but welcome sight.

"Do not be, she lived for many years. And you? Do you have anyone in your home?"

"Uh, I don't really know. I don't live here. I live very, very far away. But I have a mother still, my father left when I was young, he never came back for us. The only person I had was my best friend, Lou. But well, she…well I don't know that either. She was more like a sister really. She might be here, but she might not be. I haven't seen her in nearly two years. Her and her brother, Toby, I loved them most. More than anyone, even my mother" I admitted, it felt wrong to say it out loud but I didn't really feel the need to hide it.

There was a lot of walking in silence, even the Hobbits I could tell they'd all listened in.

"Where are you from Freya?" Pippin had hurried silently to my side again to walk with me.

"Um, a place called earth. But it isn't in Middle Earth. It's nothing like this place. I think, I like it better here. There are nicer people and the air is nice and clean and there are trees and flowers. Where I'm from there are too many buildings made of stone and metal. It's a very cold place to live."

"Not in Middle Earth?! How?" Pippin shook his head in wonder.

"Tom Bombadil knew I think, he said strange stuff to me. But well…" I hesitated ploughing on. These were the only people I could trust really "I woke up here, two days before I met you, and all I have is this little red stone…and I think it's important…but I don't know why." I pulled the stone out of my pocket to fiddle with it.

"May I?" Pippin held out his hand, for inspection. I handed it to him without a second thought. I knew it must be important, but to me it was still just a stone. He was a very curious Hobbit.

"It's very pretty." He told me handing it back wistfully, "Won't your mother be looking for you though? Won't people worry that you've gone, and come and find you?"

I thought about this for a minute. I hadn't completely ignored what would be going on back home while I was here. Sometimes when I thought of Lou, I thought of what happened to her and if it was the same thing that had happened to me.

"Well, I don't know really. I think my mother might look for a while. But I don't really have any friends." Wow, my life was sad. "They won't find me anyway, I don't know how I got here, but it was a one off I think…unless my friend Lou is here. I hope she is." I finished lamely, depressing myself.

"I'll be your friend Freya." Pippin bowed to me

"Thanks Pippin."

It was gone midnight by the time Sam, Merry and Pippin had dozed off, leaving me Frodo and Strider alone in silence again. I didn't blame them for falling asleep so quickly, we'd walked for miles and miles today, everyone was clearly tired. And all we'd had for tea was some cold deer, Aragorn had salted yesterday. I made sure the others didn't say it was deer out loud, Horses are clever and I didn't want mine getting upset. I'd let Aragorn eat me before he touched Buttercup.

I didn't particularly want another midnight talk with Strider, so with a grumpy 'night' and rolled over and closed my eyes. I wish I hadn't.


I was sitting in the garden, with the blonde elf lady. She was wearing a different white dress to the one she had yesterday, it had short sleeves and lots of pretty lace patterns across it.

She watched me as I picked flowers about the little clearing, making a daisy chain. I didn't know why, but I was making it for her. I do think she knew it was for her though, somehow. I think it might be nice to give her something.

I didn't notice when someone joined us.

He did appear very quietly from nowhere. One minute, I was connecting another daisy and the next there was a hand on my wrist. It didn't make me jump, because the lady would never let anything bad happen to me.

I did look up curiously into the familiar face in front of me. His wide green eyes, his curly black hair, his sad smile. Toby.

I think I must be dreaming about Toby because I'd spoken about him to the Hobbits earlier. But I'd never dreamt about Toby before, that I remembered at least. He was sat quite comfortably around me now though, as though he belonged in this little patch of grass with me and the blonde elf as much as we did.

His hand left my wrist and he brought it up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, still smiling sadly. I normally wouldn't have, not in real life anyway, but I lifted my hand to his face to try and smooth away the worry. He shouldn't be worried. He should be happy.

He still wasn't happy though. The elf lady noticed too, her smile faded slightly, like Toby's.

This wasn't right at all. We'd never had unhappy dreams before, because we were safe here.

Toby yelped in pain suddenly, drawing my attention back to him. His clenched hand was glowing a hot white light. I could feel the heat, even where I was. Why was his hand burning?

I reached out to it, ignoring his protests to claw it open. Sat inside his palm was a jagged green stone, a lot like my red one. It was glowing so brightly and it burned my eyes to look at, but I couldn't tear them away.

It was almost pulsing, until all I could see was this unbearable light, it flashed suddenly and within the stone, a large fiery eye was visible. I didn't like it at all. A cold cruel laugh sounded in my head and lurched back, away from Toby, from the stone, from the Eye.

Needing to get away.


When I woke up I was sweating and breathing heavily. There was sharp pain in my hand which made me grunt out loud, drawing the attention of Aragorn and Frodo. I pulled my arm from under my cloak to reveal a bloody, clenched fist.

I'd been gripping the little red stone, painfully tightly in my sleep and it had torn the skin across my palm. There was enough blood for a drip to fall as I held it aloft inspecting as I put the stone back into my pocket safely.

The dream of Toby and the stone came rushing back to me. I shuddered.

"Freya! What's happened?!" Frodo's alarmed voice pulled me back to the present. I was getting sick of all this bed time drama, couldn't I just have one decent night's sleep without lightning or throwing up deer or cutting my hand?

"Freya, open your hand." Aragorn was there by my side as well then. Frodo took my good hand, in comfort while Aragorn inspected the damage done to my other, it was a good thing it was my left hand, because it hurt quite a lot.

"It's fine. Really Aragorn, it barely hurts" I lied "I just, I had a bad dream, I never have bad dreams…" I pursed my lips, embarrassed.

He didn't look smug or condescending or anything, he just looked concerned, like Frodo.

"It is burnt, Freya. How did you do this?" He turned to his pack pulling bandages and water out, ready to fix me up.

"It was, well it was my stone." I pulled it out reluctantly, holding it for him to inspect. Which he did, before handing it back to me, with a strange look on his face.

"Your stone has burnt you." He said shaking his head without emotion, cleaning my hand.

"What did you dream about Freya?" Frodo spoke, trying to distract me from the pain that came as Aragorn poked and cleaned my burnt hand. How could it possibly have been burnt? How was that even…"Freya?"

"Huh? Oh um, well my elf lady and my friend Toby and an eye." I blurted out, Should really learn to censor myself before I speak.

"An elf and an eye?" Aragorn clarified, not bothered with Toby,

"Yes…I always dream about an elf. She's pretty, she has blonde hair and blue eyes and we sit together." Damn. There really was no word filter at all built into my brain. I sounded a bit like a four year old, cooing about their mother. Why was I being so sentimental? It is just a dream.

They both just nodded, encouragingly, but there really wasn't anything else to say, I felt like I was back in therapy with Kev. Ah Kev, haven't thought about Kev in a while.

"And the eye…" Aragorn pushed finishing with my hand to look into my face.

"Yes. It was big and it had fire in it and it was pulsing light…and it burnt me." I finished looking down at my hand confused and upset. There was lots of silence.

"Freya, I think I should look after your stone for you." He sat waiting and looking at me for a minute, searching for something, but after processing his words I just pulled out my little red stone and plopped it into his hand.

Any feelings of possessiveness long gone, after the stupid thing had singed by palm off. It was probably going to scar, but I was impressed by my lack of squeaky girl-ness. There was something obviously wrong with it, if Aragorn didn't trust me with it. If there was something wrong with it, well I didn't really want it in my pocket.

Yay. Just another problem to add on to that stupid freaking ring.

"Why is the ring so bad Aragorn?" I looked across to him. I didn't want to look at Frodo while I spoke. I felt like I was being rude. Or breaking some un-spoken promise we'd made over the last few weeks not to mention it.

"Why?" He spat sharply back at me, any shadow of kindness gone.

"I..I just…" I wish I'd never said anything. "There's something wrong with the stone too. And…I don't know why I'm here…and the Hobbits are so little…and I just want a quiet life. There are big hooded men, and I don't want the Hobbits being hurt…It feels like, lots of bad things are happening…" I finished saying almost nothing that I actually meant to say after being put on the spot.

"It is dangerous Freya. Gandalf will know more…" He turned away, looking into the distance, trying to do that mysterious ranger thing he did sometimes.

"I still…I just…" I stumbled for words regretting opening my idiot mouth "Why is the ring so important?" I sounded apologetic almost and I tried to toughen my voice up a bit, not to sound weak "I mean, it just makes people invisible. Why, why can't we just dig a really deep hole and bury it? Then no one could have it?"

I sounded stupid even to myself but it didn't really matter, it had been bothering me for weeks, why exactly we were going through all this pain –my feet throbbed in agreement- and trouble for such a tiny golden ring?

"You really are very innocent aren't you Freya?" He wasn't looking at me and his voice was very low, so I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. It didn't sound like it but, this guy was nuts.

"You will find out, soon. When we get to Rivendell. I think…you are more involved than I had thought. Go to sleep both of you. Tomorrow will be long." Aragorn sighed, turning back to us and pulling out his sword.

Yep, Aragorn with a sword. That's gonna help me sleep better.